Evaluation of water quality and pollution using multichannel sensors

We studied and discussed the characteristics and the application of a multichannel electrode type sensor based on 8 membranes using valuable lipids as an effective and simple potentiometric sensor for detecting river water quality. The response of the sensor was decided using a standard solution, adjusted as an artificial river water. Especially, we researched the response patterns of the sensor to the river water at Kita-kyusyu in Japan. In general cations increase the membrane potential of negatively charged membranes, while anions decrease that of positively charged membranes, The water quality of the upper river was clearly distinguished from water quality of the other sites. The original data obtained with the sensor were expressed on eight-dimensional space, so they were visualized on the two-dimensional plane using principal component analysis. That is, the quality of water of the upper river was the same, and the quality of middle and down river was different. The multichannel sensor systems will contribute to control water quality and water pollution.